WHICH nationalities in Europe are most likely to be overweight? The Italians, with their mountains of pasta and ice cream? The Germans with their wurst and beer? Try again.
When it comes to being overweight, the Irish are as likely as the Italians to be tipping the scales and are far heavier than the Germans, according to research from the European Food Information Council.
A whopping 63 per cent of Irish men are either overweight (53 per cent) or obese (10 per cent), compared to 64 per cent of Italian men who are either overweight (51 per cent) or obese (13 per cent).
Irish women fare no better, with as many Irish as Italian women weighing in as overweight (33 per cent) and slightly more Irish women measuring up as obese (15 per cent, compared to 14 per cent of Italian women).